AD, the largest member-owned contractor and industrial products wholesale buying/marketing group in North America, welcomed more than 180 attendees from 114 AD member owner distributors and service providers, representing nine industries and two countries, to the second annual AD Finance & HR Summit. The summit took place June 3-5 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The summit agenda was developed by AD members for AD members. The program included strategic and relevant HR and finance topics and featured networking roundtables, keynote speeches, concurrent educational sessions, a service provider tour, and more.

Neil Cohen, AD senior vice president human resources, said, “Networking has continuously been rated one of the top benefits of the AD membership and this Summit provides an excellent opportunity to extend that networking power to the Finance and HR decision-makers at AD independent distributors, so they can take industry knowledge, best practices, and action items back to their businesses.”

Christy Schmalzer, director of human resources at Auer Steel & Heating Supply Co., agreed, “This is a wonderful conference for HR and Finance folks. The networking is invaluable along with the learning opportunities on topics that matter most to our organization.”

One of the attending service providers said, “The execution of the AD Summit was top-notch. The timing, keynote speakers, variety of sessions, organization and attention to detail was superb.”

Drew Moyer, AD CFO, said, “One third of this year’s attendees were attending an AD meeting for the first time so this particular Summit was an exciting opportunity for us to welcome AD’s newest members that joined as a result of our three mergers this year.”

When asked about the value of the summit, Heather Fleming, people operations manager at Van Meter Inc., said, “It was time well spent. The Summit provided great opportunities for learnings and networking as well as just the right mix of take-aways for strategic thinking and items to implement right away to make an impact on your company.”

Michael Cassell, CFO at Hanes Supply Inc., agreed, “Being able to attend a seminar with other HR and Finance professionals and discuss topics of mutual interest in a great environment for learning was very valuable.”

In a post-meeting survey, 100 percent of attendees said they would recommend the summit to other AD members and that they plan to attend again next year. According to attendee ratings, every session met or exceeded expectations.

Based on the results and positive feedback over the past two years, AD plans hold another summit next year.